How to Install a Mini Pendant Light Fixture

Pendant lights, in which the light fixture hangs from a cord or chain, come in many styles, including a newly popular style in which the light itself is very small. In these "mini-pendant" designs, the

canopy, which goes to the ceiling, cannot be too small, because it has to cover the electrical box in the ceiling. In that sense, mini-pendant lights install just like any other lights. Make sure the canopy to your light is at least as large as the existing fixture, so you don't have to retouch the ceiling paint.

Ladder
Screwdriver
Mini-pendant light fixture
Wire caps

Instructions

- 1
  Turn off electricity to the existing light fixture at the house circuit box.
- 2
  Use a screwdriver to take out the screws that hold the existing fixture in place. Separate the wires that are above it to pull the fixture free. There should be three exposed wires left in an electrical box (white, black and copper).
- 3
  Set the mounting bracket from your new fixture up to the exposed electrical box and affix it there with the provided screws. The wires will still be accessible through the holes in the bracket.
- 4
  Wrap the copper (ground) wire around the green ground screw on the mounting bracket and tighten the screw.
- 5
  Put the pendant light together according to the manufacturer's instructions. It should have a small light unit and a larger ceiling canopy, connected by a cord.
- 6
  Bring the canopy portion close to the electrical box, with the light portion sitting on the top of the ladder. Connect the black and white wires from the canopy portion to the like-colored wires from the electrical box. Make the connections by twisting the wire caps over the two wires at once.
- 7
  Press the canopy to the bracket, setting the wires back into the electrical box. Mount the canopy to the mounting bracket with the provided screws, letting the fixture hang down. Turn on the electricity.

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